Mario Livio
Author
Pub. Date
2017
Description
Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio investigates perhaps the most human of all our characteristics-curiosity-in this lively, expert, and definitely not dumbed-down account as he explores our innate desire to know why.
Experiments demonstrate that people are more distracted when they overhear a phone conversation-where they can know only one side of the dialogue-than when they overhear two people talking and know both sides. Why does half a conversation...
Author
Description
"Throughout history, thinkers from mathematicians to theologians have pondered the mysterious relationship between numbers and the nature of reality. In this fascinating book, Mario Livio tells the tale of a number at the heart of that mystery: phi, or 1.6180339887...This curious mathematical relationship, widely known as "The Golden Ratio," was discovered by Euclid more than two thousand years ago because of its crucial role in the construction of...
Author
Pub. Date
2013.
Description
This book describes how five famous scientists actually made major errors in the interpretation of their data and how the further investigations of these mistakes led to scientific breakthroughs in such disciplines as biology, medicine, and cosmology. Drawing on the lives of these five great scientists: Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle and Albert Einstein, the author shows how even the greatest scientists made...
4) The equation that couldn't be solved: how mathematical genius discovered the language of symmetry
Author
Pub. Date
[2005]
Description
What do the music of J. S. Bach, the basic forces of nature, Rubik's Cube, and the selection of mates have in common? They are all characterized by certain symmetries. Symmetry is the concept that bridges the gap between science and art, between the world of theoretical physics and the everyday world we see around us. Yet the "language" of symmetry--group theory in mathematics--emerged from a most unlikely source: an equation that couldn't be solved....